March 27, 2022 — “The Prodigal Son”         Lent 4C

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus.] And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
 So he told them this parable: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”  Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

We all need to be more tolerant – or so they say – and I am tired of hearing about toleration. To that I cry foul.  We do not need to be more tolerant – because that is not enough. After all, this parable is not known as the “Tolerant Father”: — even though the Father shows a great deal of tolerance for how his sons treat him. As such, it is also not known as the “Intolerant Son” – nor is it known as the “Intolerant Brother”. Instead, we have heard it called the Parable of the Prodigal – either extravagantly wasteful Father, or the extravagantly wasteful Son. Of course, in recent years this parable has become known as the “Forgiving or Loving Father” – a Father who is extravagantly wasteful with his forgiveness and his love – and that is the challenge for you and me, as I see it – that is the challenge of the parable in our world today. But no where do I hear that there is a process of toleration in our text.

There are three characters in our story today – the youngest son – the oldest son – and the father who loves them both equally – and as a father, that is a challenge, is it not? But, this is the essence of the story – and this is the tension in the story as well. The tension is also brought on by a process that is also instructive for us today:

The process of:  Sin – Alienation – Recovery, Restoration, and Celebration.

The story is so clear about how sin can alienate us from our family, from our friends, from others, and from G-d. We all have those voices in our heads that tell us, constantly, to only worry about ourselves – to focus on ourselves – to help only ourselves. The urge to serve the self is so much more potent than the urge to help the others or the strangers in our lives. Sin is the veil, as A.W. Tozer puts it, the veil that we put up not only between us and G-d, but we put up between us and the others in our lives. He goes on to say: “That veil is made of living spiritual tissue; it is composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain..”

I just love the way he writes. What he is saying is that the cross is pain because sin is pain – through the pain of the cross, Jesus sets us free, tearing apart the veil between us and G-d (and us and each other) like a bandaid. While sin is an anchor that weighs us down and alienates us from the most important things in our lives – G-d and each others – Jesus lifts us up and frees us.

Pastor Dave